films we just saw

kitkat · Post by **kitkat** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:23 pm

Just watched 'Dead and Buried' after it plopped through my letterbox care of those nice people from Love Film. Had no idea what to expect and for cheapy 80's horror it was not at all bad. Original in it's own little way but I find it hard to believe it was once banned.

I agree about Halloween Night- far superior to Friday the 13th and probably a fraction of the cost. Although I am a little dubious about the 'based on a true story' part.

sherbetbizarre · Post by **sherbetbizarre** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 2:21 am

So Push has opened to little fanfare... basically it's like an episode of Heroes on a bad day (which is getting more frequent)

Set in Hong Kong, the three American leads are normal people with "abilities", being chased by the nasty people from "Division" who themselves are made up from people known as "pushers",
"sniffers", "watchers" etc.

The first half isn't bad (although the voice track is curiously too low) but the 2nd half plot becomes very messy.

Grindhouse · Post by **Grindhouse** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 1:35 pm

sherbetbizarre wrote:So Push has opened to little fanfare... basically it's like an episode of Heroes on a bad day (which is getting more frequent)

Set in Hong Kong, the three American leads are normal people with "abilities", being chased by the nasty people from "Division" who themselves are made up from people known as "pushers",
"sniffers", "watchers" etc.

The first half isn't bad (although the voice track is curiously too low) but the 2nd half plot becomes very messy.

I saw the trailer to Push a while back and i thought this is scanners for the next generation or scanners 2.doh :P

Vampirella · Post by **Vampirella** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:24 pm

kitkat wrote:
I agree about Halloween Night- far superior to Friday the 13th and probably a fraction of the cost. Although I am a little dubious about the 'based on a true story' part.

I stole this from IMDB:

"An explanation for this comes in the form of a quickie featurette with Asylum honcho David Michael Latt. You see Latt used to throw elaborate Halloween parties 20 years ago that often involved an elaborate prank being pulled on the guests.
One of these Halloween parties was being held at a secluded house in the woods and on the way there they found out that someone escaped from a mental institution in the area. When the prank designed to scare the crap out of everyone went down, the partygoers were especially freaked out because they thought it was the escapee having crashed their party."

Somehow this qualifies as grounds to claim "Based on True Events."

kitkat · Post by **kitkat** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 7:35 pm

You have to forgive me for being so sceptical but I always wonder about these claims.

soulmining · Post by **soulmining** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:17 pm

I saw Push this week too... from the trailer I thought it looked like Jumper (oh dear!), but you're right, it takes most of its influences from Heroes... and I totally agree, the plot is very, very messy!

Which is a shame, because that aside - well, I'm not even going to mention how annoying Dakota Fanning is... oh, I just did - there's some good work here. I loved the Hong Kong locations, and the production design is amazing... it looks great and is nicely directed by Paul McGuigan, and even the visual effects work well.

Just a shame that the story doesn't gel.

Grindhouse · Post by **Grindhouse** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:07 pm

a few more movies off my hardrive library.
Out Of Time quite liked this small film starring denzel washington,has a feel of the mighty quinn another small film starring denzel,back when he wasnt such a big star,and had starred in For Queen And country,next up Razorback, as pig movies go there arent that many but i like this one for its uniqueness,and it looks a lot better than that wheeled in monstrosity in pighunt.
a dark haired Dolph stars in Dark Angel a late 80s throw back thats so dated and cringworthy watching,notable for killer cds and plastic looking calico systems guns,and probably the best line of any Bmovie,"i come in peace""but your going in pieces asshole"!
next up the Toys are back in Toy Story2,i didnt like this very much when i saw it at the cinema all those years ago,but on recent viewing its every bit as superb as the 1st,and i look forward to seeing them in 3D not that they need it,but a 3rd installment of the toys adventures would be very very welcome soon.

Hello Doris! · Post by **Hello Doris!** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:51 pm

saw coraline in 3d yesterday. bit slow in places, but still worth a view. really nice music and a cute kitty cat.

streetrw · Post by **streetrw** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:00 pm

Spurred on by Alan Jones' review on the FF main site, I went to The International this afternoon and - is it that good? I don't really think so; I enjoyed it, it's good to see a thinking person's thriller, and the architecture is fantastic. But the big shootout goes on much too long, relying on infinitely well-armed maniacs shooting thousands of holes in everything except the target. I'd have liked more suspense and less indisciminate machine-gun fire. I also got the feeling that the Big Evil Banking Conglomerate is just 007's Mysterious Quantum Organisation with better interior design. Overall it's a pity and a bit of a disappointment. But I did enjoy it.

sherbetbizarre · Post by **sherbetbizarre** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 12:22 pm

At least he steered you away from The Unborn.

Apart from a few decent jumps (you know they're coming, but they work all the same) it's dull, dull, dull...

Livens up in the 2nd half when it starts to get silly.

I love the bit where she hands Oldman a massive creaky old book she's just stolen and asks him to transcribe the entire thing... after just meeting him for 5 minutes.

streetrw · Post by **streetrw** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 12:27 pm

sherbetbizarre wrote:At least he steered you away from The Unborn.

He hasn't yet - that's for tomorrow afternoon (hopeflly I can triple-bill it in Milton Keynes with Push and Franklyn)! If I can get through the DVD of Teenage Hooker Becomes A Killing Machine* without leaping under a bus I'm sure I'll be fine with The Unborn....

* Which, obviously, was rubbish.

scrobble · Post by **scrobble** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 2:33 pm

Watched The Dragon Lives Again, courtesy of LoveFilm.

A very silly and entertaining Chinese film where Bruce Lee (played by actor Bruce Leong) finds himself in the underworld having to save the kingdom, while pitted against such 'assassins' as James Bond, Zatoichi, Emmanuelle, Clint Eastwood, Dracula (and his 'army of zombies' - basically just a load of men in bad skeleton costumes), The Godfather, The Exorcist and probably more I can't remember. He's helped by his new friends who include Popeye.

The perfect Saturday night brainless popcorn movie!

lupogirl · Post by **lupogirl** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 7:31 pm

kitkat wrote:Just watched 'Dead and Buried' after it plopped through my letterbox care of those nice people from Love Film. Had no idea what to expect and for cheapy 80's horror it was not at all bad. Original in it's own little way but I find it hard to believe it was once banned.

.

Got this on on my order list for lovefilm. So looking forward to see this. Rather like the poster. Be intrigued to see why it was banned.

One of the titles from lovefilm I watched was, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. A short running time film with a bunch of very annoying characters but does have some rather good undead leaping out graves scenes.

Saw Gran Torino - Digitally at the weekend. Well written story with believable characters. Clint at his growling best!

Laymonite · Post by **Laymonite** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:55 am

Watched a really funny film over the weekend from Zone Horror called Trees:The Movie.

It's a remake of Jaws, only with a killer tree in the woods instead of a killer shark in the sea. We have a mayor who wants the camp ground kept open and we have Ranger Cody instead of Chief Brody. Apart from a few scenes here and there the film is practically a scene for scene remake of Jaws, with appropriate tree-related dialogue substituted in the relevant places.

It definitely wouldn't be to everyone's tastes but I found it absolutely hilarious.

giles edwards · Post by **giles edwards** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:43 am

lupogirl wrote:
kitkat wrote:Just watched 'Dead and Buried' after it plopped through my letterbox care of those nice people from Love Film. Had no idea what to expect and for cheapy 80's horror it was not at all bad. Original in it's own little way but I find it hard to believe it was once banned.

.
Got this on on my order list for lovefilm. So looking forward to see this. Rather like the poster. Be intrigued to see why it was banned.

One of the titles from lovefilm I watched was, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. A short running time film with a bunch of very annoying characters but does have some rather good undead leaping out graves scenes.

Saw Gran Torino - Digitally at the weekend. Well written story with believable characters. Clint at his growling best!

Back in the dark recesses of the internets lies a swarm of old GITS columns lost to time and the various updates inflicted by the evolution and rampaging success of Frightfest and it's website. March 19th 2007 was a Dead & Buried column. I might dig some of these out and retouch them for the revamped site. No matter, Dead & Buried is terrific, one of the most underrated horror pictures of the 1980s. One *might* go so far as to say that it's essential viewing for any Frighfester. "One" being "me".